Month: July 2017

I’m thrilled to be one of the hosts for today’s stop on the blog tour for The Thirteenth Gate by Kat Ross, Book 2 in her exciting Dominion Mystery series. You can read my review below. To check out the other great bloggers on the tour and see what they thought, click here.

Plus there’s a giveaway (US & Canada only, sorry!) with a chance for one lucky person to win a signed paperback copy of Book #1 in the Dominion Mystery series, The Daemoniac.

About the Book

Winter 1888. At an asylum in the English countryside, a man suspected of being Jack the Ripper kills an orderly and flees into the rain-soaked night. His distraught keepers summon the Lady Vivienne Cumberland – who’s interviewed their patient and isn’t sure he’s a man at all. An enigmatic woman who guards her own secrets closely, Lady Vivienne knows a creature from the underworld when she sees one. And he’s the most dangerous she’s ever encountered. As Jack rampages through London, Lady Vivienne begins to suspect what he’s searching for. And if he finds it, the doors to purgatory will be thrown wide open…

Across the Atlantic, an archaeologist is brutally murdered after a Christmas Eve gala at the American Museum of Natural History. Certain peculiar aspects of the crime attract the interest of the Society for Psychical Research and its newest investigator, Harrison Fearing Pell. Is Dr. Sabelline’s death related to his recent dig in Alexandria? Or is the motive something darker? As Harry uncovers troubling connections to a serial murder case she’d believed was definitively solved, two mysteries converge amid the grit and glamour of Gilded Age New York. Harry and Lady Vivienne must join forces to stop an ancient evil. The key is something called the Thirteenth Gate. But where is it? And more importantly, who will find it first?

My Review

‘In the universe…there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors.’

What do you get if you take an intricately plotted, suspenseful historical mystery set in 19th century London and New York and add ghouls and daemons? An enthralling, wonderfully entertaining read, that’s what! I’m not much into paranormal or fantasy but I really enjoyed this book because the fantasy elements were subtly woven into a satisfyingly complex historical mystery.

Lady Vivienne makes a feisty, idiosyncratic and resourceful heroine alongside her companion, Alec Lawrence. Their bond is symbiotic in nature, forged and developed over a great expanse of time with each contributing skills and abilities that make them an effective fighting force against the powers of evil. As Lady Vivienne explains, ‘We are the light against the darkness’.

Harrison (Harry) Pell and her friend, John Weston, specialise much more in solving the crimes of this world – think Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, but of course they were only fictional, weren’t they? However, in The Thirteenth Gate, Harry and John are forced to confront malefactors from a distinctly more shadowy realm. When Lady Vivienne, Alec, Harry and John join forces, nothing can stop them – or can it?

This is the second book in the series. (Click here to download Book #1, The Daemoniac, which is currently free from Amazon.) Although there are lots of references to earlier events in The Thirteenth Gate, this didn’t affect my enjoyment and the book works perfectly well as a standalone. Except….that having read this you’re definitely going to want to read the first one (I certainly do), so why not start there? In fact, as the author explains in her afterword, the story of Lady Vivienne and Alec starts much further back than that, in The Fourth Element trilogy. Book #1 of the trilogy, The Midnight Sea, is currently free to download from Amazon – click here to get hooked.

I received a review copy courtesy of the author and Xpresso Book Tours in return for an honest and unbiased review.

About the Author

Kat Ross worked as a journalist at the United Nations for ten years before happily falling back into what she likes best: making stuff up. She lives in Westchester with her kid and a few sleepy cats. Kat is also the author of the dystopian thriller Some Fine Day (Skyscape, 2014) about a world where the sea levels have risen sixty meters. She loves magic, monsters and doomsday scenarios. Preferably with mutants.

New arrivals

Billy Gamble knows how to stay a step ahead of the law. He is a thief on the run, with $4.2 million in his pocket and hiding out in Southeast Asia. But his great escape soon becomes his worst nightmare when his Thai girlfriend is murdered and all clues point to him. If he doesn’t find the real killer soon, he’ll be forced to face the consequences of a murder he didn’t commit and more people may die. Eve Donoghue is the best skip tracer in the insurance business. Her employer wants his money back and has sent Eve to find and bring back Billy. But no sooner has she found him than he drags her into the search for an enigmatic serial killer known as The Nomad. They know The Nomad has fled Thailand, but where in the world should they start looking? It will take all their skill to track down the killer and find enough evidence to prove Billy’s innocence.

War Girl Ursula by Marion Kummerow (review copy courtesy of the author)

Berlin 1943: Compassion is a crime. A prisoner escapes. A guard looks the other way. Why does Ursula Hermann risk her life and brave the Gestapo to save a man she barely knows? Ursula has always lived the law, never broken the rules in her life. That is until the day she finds escapee British airman Tom Westlake and all the right she’s worked so hard to maintain goes wrong… He runs. And she does nothing to stop him. Torn with guilt about what she did, Ursula battles with her decision when suddenly Tom returns, injured and pleading for her help. This is her opportunity to make things right. But shadows from the past tug at her heart, convincing her to risk everything, including her life, in order to protect a man from the nation her country is fighting. As they brave the perils and dangers of the ever-present Gestapo, will Ursula find a way to keep Tom safe? Or will being on the opposite sides of the war ultimately cost both of them their lives?

Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada (ebook, 99p Kindle deal)

Berlin, 1940, and the city is filled with fear. At the house on 55 Jablonski Strasse, its various occupants try to live under Nazi rule in their different ways: the bullying Hitler loyalists the Persickes, the retired judge Fromm and the unassuming couple Otto and Anna Quangel. Then the Quangels receive the news that their beloved son has been killed fighting in France. Shocked out of their quiet existence, they begin a silent campaign of defiance, and a deadly game of cat and mouse develops between the Quangels and the ambitious Gestapo inspector Escherich. When petty criminals Kluge and Borkhausen also become involved, deception, betrayal and murder ensue, tightening the noose around the Quangels’ necks …

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Book Reviews

On Monday I shared my review of The Virgin of the Wind Roseby Glen Craney, an intricately plotted historical mystery/conspiracy thriller. Friday saw my review of The Watch Houseby Bernie McGill, a wonderful historical novel set on the island of Rathlin at the turn of the century and it got a rare 5* rating from me (I’m stingy with them!). Finally, on Sunday I was thrilled to host a stop on the blog tour for It Was Only Ever You by Kate Kerrigan and to share my review of this stylish historical romance set in 1950s New York.

Other posts

On Tuesday I published a Q&A with Scott Kauffman, author of Revenants: The Odyssey Home, a mystery novel which explores some thought-provoking themes. On Tuesday I did some more clearing out of my To-Read shelf on Goodreads courtesy of the Down the TBR Hole meme. Wednesday is WWW Wednesday, where I and other book bloggers share what we’ve been reading, are currently reading and plan to read next. I also took part in the book blitz for the historical fiction novel, New Caledonia: A Song of Americaby William McEarchern. And Thursday has become Throwback Thursday so I shared another review from the early days of my blog – the first in a thriller series I’ve enjoyed, Poor Boy Roadby James L Weaver. And there was another book blitz as well, for a short story collection about residents of Manhattan – Skylineby William Fowkes. On Friday I was delighted to welcome author Alison Brodie to my blog for a Q&A about all the stories behind her romantic comedy Brake Failure.

Challenge updates

Goodreads 2017 Reading Challenge – 90 out of 78 books read, 3 more than last week. I still need to set that new target….

Classics Club Challenge– 4 out of 50 books reviewed (same as last week)